The field of the present invention is cameras for automotive use.
For the past century, mirrors have been added to the interior and exterior of motor vehicles to help drivers observe the environment around them to avoid accidents. In recent years, video cameras and monitors have been added in an attempt to improve driving acuity. Video monitors are now provided with vehicles as required by Federal Law FMVS 111. All devices added have had the same goal; to increase the surrounding view and reduce “blind spots”; those areas that are difficult or impossible for drivers to see. Many of the vision increasing devices added have produced their own problems. Wide angle mirrors and camera lenses distort images. Multiple viewing points divert the drivers attention from the road (turning the head to view the right side door mirror and then turning the head 180 degrees to view the left side door mirror, etc.). Using multiple cameras have the problem of datum point disorientation. Viewing a child on a bicycle using two cameras (even mounted right next to each other present two different angles of the original perceived objective). The child filmed from the angle of the left camera is at a different angle from the child filmed from the right camera. Thus, the child may appear to be in two different places at once. In a stationary position this may not present a large problem. But while moving; a totally different problem is presented when judging distance. The devastation caused by all these confusing scenarios can be catastrophic.
Statistics released by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reveal that vehicular back-over accidents cause over 292 deaths and 18,000 injuries annually. About 44 percent of the fatalities are children under the age of five and a third of the victims are over 70 years old. In addition to physical injury, there are over 500,000 property damage accidents due to backover (vehicles in reverse gear impacting another object). In addition, there are hundreds of thousands of side by side collisions (the side of one vehicle impacting the side of another vehicle). These accidents are predominantly caused by people not using their side view mirrors properly or vehicles positioned to change lanes outside the field of view of standard convex door mounted side view mirrors.
Yet, with all these devices and technologies offered; including radar like audible position sensors that wan when an object is near the right or left rear of the back bumper, these accidents still happen almost once every day. One thing sure to warn of this child or a jogger or a bicycle rider or a woman pushing a grocery cart in the parking lot or a thousand other unknown circumstances associated with these accidents is actual sight. One should be able to see what is coming behind their car or to the side of it to react accordingly and appropriately. This applies particularly to people and things that are in motion. Motion changes the dynamics of all decision making from second to second and only sight can provide the limitations of human perception with the information required to make a proper decision affecting the operation of their vehicle.